Africa needs more investment in mobility and logistics infrastructure | Olu Oyinsan (#020)
Interesting Notes:
- Introduction [00:00]
- About Olu Oyinsan [03:26]
- The story behind Oui Capital [05:39]
- Startup ecosystem in Africa – Forecast for the next 10 years [13:16]
- Human-centric Investment approach – Key emerging sector [18:54]
- Building mobility infrastructure in Africa [25:12]
- Electric vehicle adoption in Africa? [32:20]
- Oui Capital Journey from Fund I to Fund II [40:46]
- How to evaluate pre-seed / seed-stage startups? [56:50]
- How to add value to portfolio companies? [01:04:08]
- Future of venture capital investment in Africa [01:08:22]
Complete Transcript:
I found the word used – Disrupting. Right. Disrupting. I found it interesting. Part of me to say, I don’t think there’s a lot of disruption to be done. I think there’s building to be done. I think we can talk about disruption in places that has systems that actually work. We are trying to leapfrog. Leapfrog to actually build systems that work. If you try to find your way around cities like Abidjan or Lagos, you would realize that there’s no disruption to be done still.
Right? Because it’s a mess. You’re leaving one place and you don’t know when you’re going to get to your destination. You have no clue or maybe you have like a one hour give or take. It’s not good enough. Right? it’s not good enough for a country who wants to grow their GDP. And so I feel like a lot of the mobility companies are basically creating from scratch.
Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of Mobility Innovator Podcast. I’m your host, Jaspal Singh. Mobility Innovators Podcast invites key innovators and investors in the transportation and logistics sector to share their experience and their forecast for the future. In this episode, we’ll be discussing the role of venture capital to support innovation in Africa, and also how Africa is emerging as a next innovation hub.
Our today guest is an amazing emerging market seed stage investor, who is a Managing Partner at Oui Capital, a Pan-Africa early-stage venture capital firm. Before launching Oui Capital, he started his career in commercial banking with Nigeria Guaranty Trust Bank. Later working as a D&I consultant at Forester, a global market search firm advising some of the biggest technology companies. He also worked at Silicon Valley Banks early-stage practice supporting early stage startup across the East Coast of the US.
In 2019, he launched his first fund with $5 million. And in August, 2022, he did the first close of his second fund of $30 million. The fund is making investment in logistic, mobility, FinTech, e-commerce, healthcare, and enterprise software sector.
I’m so happy to welcome Olu Oyinsan, Managing Partner at Oui Capital. Now it’s time to listen and learn.
Hello Olu. Thank you so much for joining us on the show. I’m really looking forward to our conversation today.
Same here at Jaspal. Very interesting thesis, Very interesting theme for the podcast. Yes, I’m excited.
Great. So, today I’ll be spending time getting to know more about you, about Oui Capital which is your venture fund and also the startup ecosystem in Africa.
To begin with, I would like to ask you if you can share some fun fact about yourself with our listeners. And I saw your LinkedIn profile is quite detailed, but is there any fact which you’re still hiding from the world?
Fun facts. Fun facts. Fun Okay. Two things. I previously wanted to be a professional Soccer player. As you know, every dad from an emerging market or a country that’s poor knows that that’s a no-no. Or either doctor, lawyer in finance,
Engineer
Engineer, or a disgrace to the family. Right? Yeah. So they didn’t want to me to be a to the family, so I wasn’t led to do that, but I was pretty good at it. Second thing is I’ve been fired before.
Oh.
I think that’s. I don’t think that’s when I share very often. I think I’m probably keeping it for some very interesting times. Maybe I’ll sell or write on a book for it.
Okay but that’s interesting. That’s interesting. But I always tell people to grow in life, you need to take a step back. So probably that was a moment where it give you a rocket push and properly.
Correct.
And immigrant parents, it the same story. Now, I’m a parent and I’m an immigrant, so if my kid come to me and say, I want to be a footballer, probably I’ll also follow my dad’s footstep. But, but I’ll tell them, Okay, be a footballer, but be a doctor as well.
Which, you know, is impossible.
Which is impossible. Exactly. But, I think they’re more sense now, but I think it’s a journey our parents went through and they want best for us.
So now, something interesting on your LinkedIn profile and you mention on your LinkedIn profile that you want to democratize opportunity through venture capital which is a kind of a headline for your LinkedIn, but I think it’s also your personal mission. So I’m curious to know the story behind this mission, why you felt that way, and, and also I saw you have a successful career as a banker. So what inspired you to take this path and set up Oui capital?
So there a bunch of different things. First of all, I think looking back right now or, just economic career from outside, it might look normal, but I would say for where I am today and what I’m doing, I’m probably pretty disadvantaged. Getting into here or underprivileged. My privilege and my opportunities growing up don’t add up to what I do today or my career trajectory where it’s gotten to or where it’s going. It doesn’t add up and I think what makes it even, what makes it even crazier. It doesn’t look like it. But so it’s being my life has been a rollercoaster of positive outcomes. Almost every time there could be a positive or a negative outcome almost every time, right? It usually comes out as the positive outcome, especially in life changing moments.
Olu Oyinsan [00:06:54]:
And it lends itself to understanding what opportunity and outcomes can be for people’s lives. And this, what a better way of expressing opportunity on outcomes than entrepreneurship. And so entrepreneurship is that place where it’s kind of takes you out of the grid and you can be whoever you want to be. Without the constraint of status quo and all those kinds of things? It’s wild, wild west where, there’s a lot more, there’s a lot more basically just earning what you put in. As an entrepreneur no one asks you for your degree, no one asks you, how well did you do? No one asks you for your work experience when they’re buying a product that you love, that they love? You’ve come out here, you’ve created a product, they love it, They don’t care.
Olu Oyinsan [00:07:59]:
And so, nothing, brings democratization like entrepreneurship. But a lot of times what entrepreneurship has become in the world today is that that entrepreneurship usually needs to be funded. Personal experience, Francesca and I had started a company in 2016 called Wifi Monkey. That we were unable to raise money for. I am a Nigerian immigrant. He is Swiss immigrants, even though those are classes of immigrants, but still it was very difficult. And so what we really experienced at the time was that we had, we’re sitting on a great idea, big market, but we were just unable to get the kind of funding that other people would’ve had access to. And so this coupled with my just background and interactions with opportunity across my life, we said, Why don’t we find a way where everyone who has the potential to be great, can be great with our help?
Olu Oyinsan [00:09:13]:
We’ve now been blessed with a little more validation in our careers a better network, not forgetting where we’re coming from. We said we can change the story for the next hundreds or thousands of entrepreneurs coming behind us who don’t fit the regular mold of a man who’d, you know, trash the first startup and raised $350 million the next year or two. We don’t have that opportunity. And so let’s at least give one opportunity to people who are like us. And that’s where we really came at it from. And you know what they say that talent is evenly distributed, but opportunity is not. And so what we actually set out to do was to try to balance that skill a little more. We still have a long way to go, but I think we’ve started in the right direction.
Jaspal Singh [00:10:10]:
Yeah. Well, that’s super I really love your point that how entrepreneurship can be a big leveler in the society. So as an entrepreneur, nobody asks which college you come from, which educational background you have, what kind of experience you have if people like your product, so they don’t care about those kind of thing. And that’s what we see a lot of this successful entrepreneurship story is people are school dropout or college dropout. You will never see them succeed in a professional career, but they can do that. And I think it’s the best way to bring equality in the society, giving opportunity to people who has potential. So, great to hear that. Now your fund is focus on Africa and I think Africa
For now
Now Okay. So, you are planning to, to expand to other geography in future.
That’s, I think that’s the topic for another day. but as I’ve said, again, opportunity talent is evenly distributed, right? Have investors in Africa who is just as good as any other global investors. And so there’s a lot of unique insights that we have that we shared with the world. I think maybe when a lot of African investors get mainstream. Some of the problems we have in venture capital today will be solved. But again as I say, charity begins at home. We’re going to use Africa’s prosperity as a case study Okay. So that the world can learn from us.
That’s great. I think that’s a good point. You know, always start from your home and then take it to the world. Now for Africa, you are doing some amazing work, and the reason for that is it’s a big market and, and right now it has a big population around 1.4 billion population in the continent. And it’ll be one of the continents which will keep growing in term of a population.
But I think the challenge for big population cannot be solved by the traditional way. You have to involve tech and technology. So we will see a lot of tech startup right in Africa. But the reason is always neglected or ignored by the venture capital firm. In fact it attracted only 1% of global venture funding in Africa. Which is pathetic, pathetic because it should get more. So I would love to know
About, it’s going to go to about 2% this year.
Oh, that’s great. So at least it’s a hundred percent growth, but it’s still small. It’s still small, I feel, when you have a 16% population of the world. So 2% venture capital funding is not enough. But I think the, what you are doing, it will change. But I would love to know your experience because you’re working in the continent, and like you said, you have your roots in Nigeria, how this startup ecosystem is evolving in Africa, and like you said it this year, it’ll go to 2%. What is your prediction for 10 year, like in 2030 what share we can see from the startup coming from Africa?
So I’ll start with your first question on just what I see as the ecosystem today. Clearly the funding numbers say something, right? Two years ago $1.3 billion as a continent. This year we’re going to cross $5 billion, right? So clearly we’re doing more than a hundred percent growth year on year. And that $5 billion is symbolic this year, just given how much the rest of the world has shrunk.
Yeah.
Right? And this is the reason why when you just pull it are the growth actually tells a story, a very tiny story or a profound one that investors are getting more bullish about Africa. So that’s the first thing. The other thing you’d see is just that apart from the share growth, there’s development, right? The ecosystem is getting a lot more sophisticated, You see global accelerators now some, basically, there’s now Techstars Lagos. Really setting up the kind of things that you see where resources start to gather around opportunity, right? And just the knowledge about how to build a company is getting more common on the streets of Lagos. It’s less of a unique career to say I’m a start of, Right? They know it’s come of age, and this is how you know that, you know a country or people who have started to deploy their resources, either it’s time, either it’s for recognition or money just around entrepreneurship of what it is as new age opportunity.
Olu Oyinsan [00:15:19]:
So that’s the first thing. The second thing is really what you think is going to be in the next few years. As someone who again, is a proponent of democratization, my answer is it depends. It depends on what we do with what we’ve got right now. And this is why I think at Oui Capital, we have a very unique approach to help me look at being a VC investor, and I tell my team this all the time, like it’s great to be in TechCrunch, it’s great to be doing all those things. But eventually you’re a money manager. And the one single thing that underscores the performance of the money manager’s is not how much publicity you’ve been able to bring to the asset class. You know, it’s not how many times you appeared on cnn, it’s not how many times you appeared on a TechCrunch.
Olu Oyinsan [00:16:29]:
Yeah. It’s how cool it made you look but is how much of that money did you return to the provider, the capital. I think as VCs, especially in tech we have to keep our eyes on the ball. And this is why I said what that number is going to be in a few years depends on us, depends on what we, depends on funds like Oui capital. Are we going to go back and return 5 or 6 or 7x cash on cash dollar investors? If we do that, it’s not going to be a question. If we don’t do that, then it becomes a question. But what’s going to happen? And so that’s why I really say just and this is not out of a place of pessimism, it’s out of a place of just knowing how capital works.
To say what direction is going to go is going to depend on how we’ve treated the capital that’s coming. I think just the early signs that really good our fund is doing pretty well, especially the first fund. And I know many other funds across the continent are doing pretty well. liquidity is becoming an easier topic to address. So I think just going the way we’re going we’re probably going to maybe get to 5% of what the global is. It will be short of the 16% of the population. Yeah. But it’s a story. It’s a good story.
Yeah. I think 5% is also a good number. And, and I love your answer actually. It’s like taking that responsibility, not saying that others are not doing it, but taking the responsibility, saying, as a VC fund, you need to bring return. And if you bring return, the investor will come and ready to put the money, more money in. I mean, your next fund can be a $100 million dollar, and another one can be $500 million, but the condition is, have you returned three or four time of your previous fund? So if you can do that, the size can keep going. That’s great. Thanks for sharing that perspective. I really loved that.
Now about your fund. I’m curious to know, what is your thesis? What are the sector you’re investing and why you pick those sector?
So I’ll tell you first of all is, and I’ll give you, I’ll give you my career background. I started my career in banking funding small businesses Right. In Nigeria. And it’s usually not the, it’s usually not it’s not the background of most people in venture capital today. People with my kind of background back in the day, they used to call them recovering bankers.
Oh, Right.
Basically, people who didn’t just see tech as this huge growth rocket that it was. it’s different for me because I had worked in technology consulting after that, and I think it gave me a very rounded opinion of what tech and tech growth, growth and tech should look like, and the kind of results that you want to be seeing, the kind of impact that this company should be having on the communities they serve. That being said, I personally think that we need to go through a very Results centric approach. And so I came from a very traditional background, right? I came from a very traditional background, which is in credit risk, where you deal with numbers. Figuring that out and then coming into tech. So it’s, for me personally, I think the approach we need to be taking is basically a results oriented approach. Is there something specific you would like to know?
Yeah. I mean, I would love to know, which are sector you’re investing and why did you pick, like I read on your profile that you’re investing in healthcare, FinTech, e-commerce, mobility and logistic. Why did you pick those sector?
Just piggybacking on what I said as a result-oriented approach, right. The way Africa is set up today, it is, again, it’s, it’s, I call it VC 1.0.
And VC 1.0 is basically that result oriented level where it’s venture hits directly to the lifestyle and the living conditions of the people. Cause our needs are different. We’re still lower on the pyramid of the hierarchy of need. So when we were starting recap that we decided to take a result oriented approach. What are the most basic needs of the people in the communities we serve? And what’s the easiest way to really attack for need of a better word, poverty. We still make decent returns to your investors. And so we went for the VC 1.0 sectors. We said, if we can enable people to do better business. Create opportunities for themselves and stay in best shape. So I’ll call it a human centric approach. So that’s why you see us doing a lot of investments in financial technology.
Yeah.
Digital commerce, mobility and logistics. And in software, these are the places that really attack developmental poverty from the roots. And as I call it, again, it’s VC 1.0. And this is what’s responsible for how we’ve picked sectors we invest in, we want to make real impacts now.
Interesting. I never thought from that perspective, but I think what you mentioned make quite a lot of sense is these are the sector which has a direct impact on people life and any startup which will be doing something, whether it’s a FinTech, helping a cashless society or healthcare or e-commerce providing opportunity to seller to reach out to a bigger market and mobility and logistic, which I always feel is a key for any develop city or, or developing city.
Absolutely. And they run on each other, right? So there’s no logistics. You can’t do commerce.
Yeah.
Unless all you want to ship is software product. So that’s why they work hand in hand. And we kind of cross pollinate ideas and learnings across these sectors as we invest.
Well, I love your point about human-centric investment. A lot of people say human-centric customer approach and all, but never heard about this term of using human-centric investment approach.
Now, the sector, we talk about mobility and logistic, which is close to my heart too, right? Because I feel that’s a key differentiator between a developing and developed market getting access for goods and people if people have access to goods and people can have access to job, it’s all together a different story. And mobility is one of the area, which is growing in Africa. I have seen a lot of mobility startup coming up in last 2-3 years. In fact, some of them are going global.
How do you see that the, the startup in the mobility and logistics are actually disrupting the market at the grassroot level? Because you’re working very closely with them. And also would be interested to know a little bit about some startup in your portfolio. Like which are your favorite? It’s difficult to point out, pick one or two. But at the same time, I asked this question to investor, like, which is your favorite startup? And they say like, How can I pick my one kid over other? So all of them are my favorite, but I want to understand which one you feel is like really making huge impact in people life.
Okay. so to start I found the word used disrupting. Right. Disrupting. I found it interesting. Pardon of me to say. I don’t think there’s a lot of disruption to be done. I think there’s building to be done.
I think we can talk about disruption in places that has systems that actually work. We are trying to leapfrog. Leapfrog to actually build systems that work. If you try to find your way around cities like Abidjan or Lagos, you would realize that there’s no disruptions to be done. It’s because it’s a mess.
You’re leaving one place and you don’t know when you’re going to get to your destination. You have no, you have no clue. Yeah. Or maybe you have like a one hour give or take. It’s not good enough. It’s not good enough for a country who wants to grow their GDP. And so I feel like a lot of the mobility companies are basically creating from scratch,
Some leveraging on some things that are already existing, but it’s not a lot. So we’ve invested across countries and across companies doing mobility, either by fiscal assets or by software. Sometimes the same products that carry, people also carry the same products, or the same solution that carry people also carry products. So mobility and logistics at some point mix.
Olu Oyinsan [00:27:08]:
But you need mobility to do logistics and vice versa. So they’re pretty intertwined. So we’ve invested all around from companies who are doing last-mile. Some who are doing green mobility, some who are doing basically software for logistics and mobility. Some interesting companies in our portfolio are our bike, who are basically doing there, they’re like they do bicycle mobility in universities across Nigeria. Currently they do maybe about 4,000 rides every day in about 13 campuses across that it’s really hard work. Played with all these problems, including government strikes in universities. And this is why I said there’s nothing to disrupt
Yeah. It’s to build. No, I love your point.
So that’s that we have an investment in a company called Twende Mobility, whose product is called Twift in Kenya, basically providing SaaS product for third party logistics operators. Right. So basically, it’s like your right out of the box if you run business. So infrastructure level, we have an investment in a company like OkHi. They’re basically this time producing creates like KYC and location products for both mobility, logistics and FinTech. So basically, locates the person you’re going to either deliver a package to, or the bank wants to know whether Right. Very accurate. It was built by a team whose founder was in X Google Maps engineer. And so we have companies like that. And we also have MVX out of Nigeria, which is more logistics.
Olu Oyinsan [00:29:24]:
And MVX is very unique and special in the direction of their product targets. And it’s actually helping people who would not have been able to sell to maybe somebody in India or someone in Mexico before. You have a product, you sell cotton, you sell Coco, you sell Sheba. And now, right, Jaspal who’s based in Mumbai, actually wants your product so on MVX, Jaspal can buy from you and they’ll take care of everything end to end. logistics from your door to Jaspal’s door in the other country. And not only does it do mobility, but it does also help trade. Now you’re actually expanding the opportunity for business owners somewhere in the world, going back to our original mission. Of putting this fund together. And so those are some of the companies in our portfolio. We’ve looked at many other great companies that we couldn’t back. Right? Of course you come back every company, great companies doing things out there. So that’s a lot of our portfolio. What was the second thing you wanted to know?
So basically about like, why you feel that this mobility is important in Africa. But you already answered about like it’s a building. And I love your answer because, and thanks for correcting me. You actually mentioned it’s not a disruption, it’s actually the building because
Sorry, I have a lot of, I an angry VC
No, but I love, I love to be get corrected. And in fact that’s, that’s one of the thing I want to check with you and understand and pick your brain, like you said, the Africa want to leave frog now you don’t want to take the traditional path and
We need to, You don’t have a choice.
You don’t have a choice.
Probably more babies quicker than we can cater for them. So we need to, we need to a matter.
And one of the area you need to leap frog is the electric vehicle space. Because the world is moving toward electric vehicle till now the motorization rate is very low in Africa, but it will grow. People will get more money, people will become richer. So you need mobility, you will buy vehicles, you need electric buses and the trains and all.
I like how you made that. I like how you’ve made that assumption.
Okay
Not every country needs to move towards electric.
I didn’t make an assumption, but why I feel that is happening is one, Africa has a lot of sun energy which can be harness, which a lot of people miss. Secondly, I think Africa cannot do the same mistake what other country did with the fossil fuel because the pollution level so that’s why I want to check with you, what do you think about this whole electric vehicle phenomena going on around the world?
So yeah. This is I feel like this is half an engineering conversation as it is a political conversation.
Yeah.
Right. And that’s why the moment I heard, Oh yeah, an Africa needs to move towards electric. That’s, that’s the reason why I probably interjected and said, and this is not really this is not an expression of my opinion. This is more just having a very rounded discussion. I don’t think there’s one way, one single way to skin a cat. and again, a lot of countries, as you said, have made this mistake. They’re better off for today and they’re in a position to do where now they can switch. Because now they’re disrupting what they already have, what they build through fossil foils. We don’t have anything. And the question is, should we leapfrog? That’s the first question.
Yeah.
Right. Should we leapfrog or we should go through the developmental phases every country went through, right? Should we be looking for our own net zero? Most of this countries have contributed most
Oh
Yeah. Mostly right to the carbon footprint we have today.
Oh, yeah.
And so what does net zero look like? Is it net zero for the world? Right? Do you contribute most of this, develop your own infrastructure and then turn around and say, Oh no, everyone, now let’s go clean
That’s what happening. That’s what happening. That’s what happening right now. You know, like everybody’s pushing
Or do you let us develop at our own pace and then go clean too, and everyone owes the responsibility for their net zero? I guess that’s a question to be answered. Right? And also that things are on competitive advantage. Some countries right, are rich in lithium, some countries aren’t. Yeah. going to electric is going to make some countries poor, it’s going to make some countries richer. And as I said, this is getting into a public policy conversation as much as it is a venture capital investing conversation. And so I definitely believe we need smarter, cheaper, and less harmful ways to move people around. But also we need to move people around.
Yeah. It’s the first I agree
And goods around. That one is existential. And so I think each government has to really figure out what’s the best situation for them and their right. And then we would layer on top the topics of sustainability as it works for each person. But I do agree with you that EVs have actually created a lot of disruption, Right? Is it cheaper? The jury’s still out.
Yeah.
Is it more sustainable in the long term with all the lithium and the batteries? The jury’s still out, Right? But I don’t think we should as a world, I don’t think we should stop at EVs and see what we’ve found it. Maybe we can go to water, who knows.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
But as I said again, that if you’re a country that is rich in lithium and poor in petroleum, I think you probably want to be figuring out how you use your own homegrown resources best because it’s really going to accelerate development and just prosperity for the country. And I also think every country should move at their own pace.
I agree. I mean, these are important point. And one point I feel what you mentioned is critical, is that at the end, people need to move, the goods need to move around. So you cannot stop those development and saying,
It’s just like the, the excuse I make for America. Right. And so I’m, I’m both American and Nigeria. And so it’s a very, it’s a very tricky place to sit.
Very True
But you know, you go to Europe or you go to Africa and they say, you know, the food you guys eat in America is trash. The food this makes people fat. It makes people die. I agree. Right? But I even notice each time I’m going on, I’m going fundraising in America. Right. I gain a few pounds. What else is going bad with my body? I don’t even know.
Yeah, that’s interesting.
But I said what it is that America has two problems, right? One is to make sure people are healthy from the food they eat. The second one, which is existential, is to make sure people don’t even die of hunger.
Yeah.
So you need to solve the first one, and they had to make a call
Yeah.
And said, let’s lower your life, expect since you’ve got like five years, but let’s keep you alive. Let’s make sure you don’t die today because of hunger. And so all this food is out there, less people are dying of hunger. What’s going to happen at 60-70? How much is your healthcare bill going to be? I don’t know,
Right.
So that’s the same thing with the conversation. We need to move people around first. And goods around first it’s existential, Right? How to best do it sustainably is the next phase that we are going to attack.
Yeah, it’s a process and I mean, some way you can leapfrog, but at the same time, I mean, we, to be honest, I’m seeing a lot of traction on EV front in Africa. But like you said, it’s not equal. It’s not like all country can do it because some country has resources lithium’s or mines, which can be used for battery production, but other countries they don’t. So it’ll create, create another kind of inequality in the society. Now, I love your candid answer.
I mean, I really appreciate because a lot of time people, people hide opinion, and we should have our own opinion. In fact, when Elon Musk tweet it recently, and he said we should increase the oil production he’s selling EV but at the same time, he said, for current time, we have to increase oil production. So he basically said, You can’t just stop living. You can’t stop the oil production because you said we going in EV, but that’s will take time. So in a same way, like you mentioned, it’s good to go for EV, but you need to live today. So let’s live today and then plan for the future.
Right.
Great. Thanks for sharing. And now I want to touch base a little bit about your investment side because you are the, you know, kind of upcoming fund manager. I would say you launched your debut fund, debut fund of $5 million with Francisco in 2019. I wouldn’t say that the raising first fund is easy because it’s difficult.
It’s, yeah. It’s, it’s hell
It’s hell. But, I feel, you know, raising the second fund is even more difficult. I don’t know if you agree with me or not, because you still want to show some traction, want to some result and you managed to do your first close of second fund, which is great because now you’re raising a $30 million fund. It’s a big achievement, I would say for a new fund manager to go for a second fund. So I would love to know your journey from zero to Fund-I and from Fund-I to Fund-II. And what are the key lesson you learned on this journey which you would like to share with other fund manager or other investors?
First of all, I’m reserving the details for my book, but I’ll give you the abridge version. Like any, like any entrepreneur who tries to get a business off the ground. Being a first time emerging manager and then invest in emerging countries. Yeah. It’s, it’s pretty tough, right? It’s double layer of adversity.
Agree.
But it makes you strong, right? It makes you well prepared for the world. So I would say our first one, I want you to compare it to the angel round of a tech founder. What’s the angel around? Usually sometimes you have a product, the product has no real traction. The product, you’re not even sure it can work. If some people are buying, we don’t know if those people are buying sustainably. We don’t know if they’re going to come back. We don’t know what the future holds. So a lot of the times people are betting on two things, what they see as the macro, which is a proxy for opportunity. And what they see as your personality as the fund manager or the founder. Which is a proxy for if the opportunity will come to fusion, because you can see a fund manager pursuing a great market, but they’re just not the right person to deliver to do it. And then you see some great people, who are pursuing a market that you think doesn’t have any new growth. So usually, angel rounds are the mesh of those two. Same thing for first time fund managers. And so at that time, what you need to convince people of is first there’s an opportunity here. You know what it is going around in 2018 – 2019 selling Africa. Right?
I can imagine
A lot of luck. Selling Africa has anything more than a philanthropic project at the time and also selling yourself as the man to deliver this promise when you are not coming off 10 or 15 years career in Goldmans Sachs or leaving Sequoia to go start your own fund. You’re literally starting democratized again as a founder. And so basically it’s entrepreneurship. There are two types of fund managers, right?
The ones who get the blessing of the fund they were at before they reach first close, the moment they decide they want to leave, they say, Okay, your first one is $10 million, here is $5 million, go look for the remaining $5 million. Or this one is $20 million here is $15, or here is seven million.
Or those who have spoken and gotten the first close before they even leave their job. All the few LPs, this is what we’re trying to do. They’re like, we’re in $5 million here. And then there’s the guy who decides to become an investor in other companies and has nothing. The background is in that stellar the continent you decided to invest in, isn’t that stellar? There are like two exits, and it’s just hard. So what it is really is that you need to figure out a way to sell those two things for your first one.
A good one. Right. Tell those two things and go to the kind of people who will have backed your startup at Angel Round. Those are the people you need to take money from to create the traction that you need to raise your real institutional fund, which is probably going to be your second fund. And you need to work as hard as possible to give an investor new excuse to pass on your phone the next time around. And this is why I always say it depends on your performance to figure out what the next phase is going to be.
Yeah.
And so we really went out there, I tapped into most of my network for my employers friends and family people who I knew while I was trying to build a company that we couldn’t raise for. Actually, one of our invest LPs in this fund is someone we’re trying to raise money for Wifi Monkey seven years ago. He was a managing director at Techstars Boston at the time. And now shout out to Semyon Dukach. Now he runs one of the one of the basically best funds for immigrants in the US. He had moved on from Techstars and now runs One Wave Ventures, which basically, you know, connecting six years later and is like, What are you up to now? I’m like, I run the fund invest and a forget it. Like, okay, I know you right, I know you and you’ve come a long way, so here’s a check.
Great
And so those are the kind of networks you need to tap into for your first fund. And when you manage to get that capital together, again, I see a discourse. I think you have to start small, especially if you’re not privileged. You have to start small and show what you can do with the little you’ve been given, and then you grow from there. I think one of the downfalls of imagine fund managers is that we set a target based on societal expectations. Both for fund size and for the kind of things you should be doing. And then you never end up even doing it.
Yeah.
True. Right? So just like entrepreneurship, you have to start small and keep iterating. It’s a repeats repeatable process, Keep doing it, and then you grow from there. So that was really it. We raised what we could we thought we could possibly raise. We didn’t even close at $5 million. We closed at $4.1 million. Basically, we didn’t get to our target. But it was enough to show what we could do. And then dynamic hits. And the question was, should we be raising for four years or should we take the money we have and go show that we’re the best at doing this? And we picked the latter and that was really good for us. We found some amazing companies who have done really well and validated us as people who know how to pick the best companies on the continent as well as support them to success. And so, and that’s the reason why the first close of our second fund was more than three times our first fund.
Yeah.
And this is how growth happens. But I think one of the major reasons is because investors who backed us the first time were happy with what they sent and investors who didn’t back us the first time wish they did. And so that’s, I think this is how you grow it. It’s a result driven business, and you have to keep your eyes on the ball.
Yeah. these are amazing points, what I can sense from your conversation is that you always need to build relationship over the period of time. So even the VCs or investor who didn’t invest in you, but you need to keep in touch, keep them close to you because you never know how they will come back.
Yeah, absolutely. And, again, that’s what I tell for a lot of first time fund managers now. Is that it’s never a yes or a no. Yeah. Is it a yes now or hard no now? It all depends on what you do.
Mm.
And this is why some funds open and close within three months or six months. Because the investors who are coming into that fund have probably been investing in that fund for the last, in those, that fund manager for the last 20 years. And these are relationships that were built 20 years ago. So it’s a snowball effect. You keep building this network, You keep building this community of people who know and trust your work as a fund and becomes easier and easier. But it’s hard if you’re not a privileged geography or person type. But is it possible? Yes, it’s, and you have to roll with the punches, but when life gives you lemons, you have to make lemonade with it. And that’s what we try to do instead of sit down and complain about how the cards we’ve been dealt are not the same with someone who was born in the Bay Area. Right. you can still make a difference. And I think it’s really about how far you’ve come, not where you started from.
Oh, It’s always important to try and keep trying, you know, there is no, there is no way you can give up. And I mean, one thing I want to check with you is like, what is more difficult raising fund as an investor or raising fund as a founder?
Oh, no
Question.
You know the answer.
I know the answer, but I thought
It’s 10 x is the right amount. I think it’s 10 x more difficult to raise as an investor, it’s just normal. Because when someone sees you as an investor, there’s a certain level of competence and ability that they attribute to you. And that in itself is a problem. Because the bar gets so much higher. In regular entrepreneurship, which is founder side, it’s okay to say, I don’t know these things and we’ll figure it out. Right.
But not as a fund manager
A fund manager, you have to come with a complete plan. And there are no question you can’t answer. I don’t know. But as, as a founder, it’s okay to say you don’t know because it’s related process. It’s okay to say, we failed, we’ll go again. Our branch is never coming back.
True
Right. But as a founder, you can pop up and raise another $50 million
Yeah.
After doing an average kind of performance. And so it’s, it’s very different. And I think it puts weight, and this is the reason why the average age of an investor is so much higher than the average of an age of a founder.
True.
Because it’s expected that you gathered all this experience and basically, you’re this crystal ball that knows it all. And that’s why it’s so much more difficult because when I come to you as an investor, when I’m convincing you to do is to say, I’m a better investor than you give me your money. But as a founder, it says, I’ve discovered something and I want to pursue this opportunity. Let’s see how it goes and the kind of providers of the capital also for VC funds are less they’re more risk averse. And so the kind of questions you get from a risk averse institution or person, they’re very different. The bar is so much higher. And again, funds being 10-year vehicles and being basically in continuum infinity, because the fund manager usually raises another fund and another fund.
Oh yeah. You have to always on
It takes out the formal element. It takes out the phone element. So the investors who waited 3-4 years to see what we do with our first respond. And then they can say, Hey, we want to invest in your second bond as a founder. They know when an entrepreneur comes to you, if you’re four years late, you are late. And so this formal drives the ability for investors to open their wallets early.
Yep.
Yeah. Right? And so it’s very different. So it’s built for you to overlook flaws in a founder because even a founder with many, many flaws. Can build an Uber. And the question is, do you want to be the guy who passed on Uber because he didn’t respond to your email in three days? Or you want to be the guy who said, I don’t care. Here’s the why
Olu Oyinsan [00:54:42]:
And we know how you feel as an investor if you did. And so it’s so much so much more difficult. But I think it’s great because the 10 buildups for you as an investor helps you to be able to help your portfolio founders to raise money. it’s always, I feel like it’s always so much easier when I get on the road to help the founder raise money. You know, sometimes I just coach them, I say, See this, this and this, and they’ll be falling over each other to put money in your fund or Your company
Mean
Olu Oyinsan [00:55:21]:
There’s no fund manager who’s first bond people are falling over each other’s money
Jaspal Singh [00:55:25]:
<Laugh>.
It’s like, you might oversubscribe, but it’s not the same thing. And so I think the right amount, I can’t remember who said this I think it was Jason Lemkin. It’s 10X
10X
It’s definitely 10 x more difficult to raise money as an investor.
Jaspal Singh [00:55:45]:
That’s, that’s great. And I agree with you, it’s managing money is not an easy business. So managing startup is one thing, but managing somebody’s money is not easy business and getting return out of it. Like we can’t, if you can’t even manage your own money, how can you manage somebody’s money. A lot of people ask like, Oh, gimme $10 million and I’ll do wonder. And like, what will you do with that? And they have no answer. No, I love your point. Like, as an investor, you need to have a plan and you need to have all answer. You cannot say that. I’ll figure out with your money. You have Correct.
Now, important thing, what you’re doing with your fund is you’re investing in this pre-seed and seed stage startup. So I assume most of the startup you’re investing is either they’re pre-revenue or without too much of traction or very little traction. And so important question is how do you make your investment decision? Because at this stage, you don’t know how that company will grow and what will happen and what are the key thing you look in this startup especially in Africa.
I’m not going to bore you with the old conversation of team market traction.
Everybody says that
Every VC analyst who gets out of business school knows those things, but they can still make horrible investment decisions. Right? Yeah. So I’ll say at recap though, what differentiates us is two things. To be able to pick great companies, you need the art and science bits. And when I say the art is basically having a structured approach
Yeah.
Approaching your investment decisions, basically you have to have most of the data that you need to make an empirical decision. Which is actually the easy part. The other part is that you need to staff your team with people who have what I call investor IQ. It’s that thing in your gut. It’s that entrepreneurial feeling that can tell Right. Or can guess less and be wrong less of the times than other people about the direction a market is going. Or what a company’s influence in a changing market is going to be. No one can teach you this. You can improve it by having more information at your disposal, or no one can teach you this. And this is why we don’t hire from traditional venture backgrounds at Qui Capital. We hire people who we think have investor IQ, but who are willing to really learn quickly. And this, I think is especially investing at such an early stage. A lot of times you have to make that decision. Where’s this market going? You remember? Is this the right person? And somewhere in between that are all the things that you cannot explain. The moment you can logically explain an investment decision at seed or pre-seed, and you can logically explain completely is probably not going to be a world changing investment.
Olu Oyinsan [00:59:11]:
It will be hard to convince anyone that, I’m going to build this app and I’m going to take pictures of people’s empty rooms and couches and then a stranger given all the serial document documentaries. A stranger going to come into my home and it’s going to crash on my couch and it’s going to give 30 bucks and out of that 30 bucks, I’m going to take three bucks, and then this company that’s going to be worth $10 or $15 or $40 billion. I’m like, get it out my office.
Yeah.
but so it takes someone who would say, what’s the housing shortage? How many people are sleeping in trailer parks? Right. What’s the demographic of these people? how much are they spending? What’s the ability to pay? What’s their willingness to pay? How much is an average hotel room? That still doesn’t tell you Airbnb is going to be successful, but it’s some information that you can work with
Yeah.
That you can pair with your investor IQ Right. And say, you know what, this might be the future and this is how you win investing early. If you’re investing in Airbnb series A or series B, it’s a different ballgame.
Oh yes
You try it and test it. Now the question is, what are hotel prices seeing how hotels going to respond? How’s regulatory authorities going to respond? Yeah. The real estate market going to say? Are our policy is going to kick against it? These are things that are now more of science that you cannot pick and say, Okay, we’re going to make a decision to invest in your but pre-seed or seed. You need people who think like entrepreneurs, who put themselves in the shoes of an investor or an entrepreneur and say, I believe you can kill this.
Mm.
Because also all the empirical data, which is not complete, but I can extrapolate, I can complete the puzzle and I’m going to back you. Early-stage investors are I think, a rare breed. It’s the ones who are doing it. It’s that hybrid between being an entrepreneur and being a provider of capital and also being able to balance your risk on the portfolio side, which is your job as a money manager. And so all these other things come together to really tell you what companies should we be back in. But as I said, the two major things that we’re looking at, is this market big enough? Is the opportunity big enough? And is this person, is she or he the right person or are they the right person? Make this opportunity click. And so this is what we usually look at. And I think the secret to that is picking people who think like
I love your analogy of art and science of investment and it’s very important. Some investor told me that they also asked themself that, Would you like to work in that company because are you really excited about that particular market or not? Or is the problem you want to solve or not? Like Airbnb is a class example. A lot of investors turn them away or, or frankly,
Jaspal Singh [01:02:40]:
I’ll rent your room in the house and stranger will come and say, and they’re like, Okay, you kick out. And, and, but it’s a big company, and like you said, if you have external validation point, what is the hotel prize? Why people will do what is the demographic. In fact, I didn’t mention, so my first company was Airbnb for India. I launched in 2011 and we were ahead of market because a lot of our guests used to go to these houses and four o’clock in the morning, they used to wake up the owner and say, I need a milk, or I need a glass of water, or I need tea. And, and the host used to tell them, you are not in a hotel it’s my house and I’m sleeping. And, and so both were unhappy. So we were ahead of time.
Jaspal Singh [01:03:25]:
And, and like you mentioned, sometime your idea is good, but you are probably right person to do it, but the market opportunity is not existing or probably it’s coming later, right? Correct. So thanks for sharing that.
Now one of the key thing, what we are seeing in the market is there is a lot of capital and people have money available, but one thing which differentiate one investor over it is a value add in term of a knowledge, experience, connections. just want to understand what is your value add and how you help the founders. And I also saw like you have a such an impressive list of LPs. Do you also bring them on board to help your portfolio companies?
Short answer is yes. And so if you, if you probably seen any of our press, you realize that our funds are called the mentors fund. One. Mentors I and Mentors-II.
Oh, okay.
This is a very central piece of how we approached the Africa opportunity, right? At a time where resources were scars. And when I say resources, I just don’t mean money, I mean talents to build this companies, right? And a lot of just technical expertise. And so what we did is, along with each of our funds, we have something we call the mentors pool. Which is a combination of people who are highly skilled in different verticals or expertise in different areas, who mostly are investors in the fund and some who are not, who dedicate some of their time monthly to help portfolio companies as the need that arises. I think I have great experience right across different things as well as entrepreneurship, Francesco, Peter, the rest of our team really amazing team, but we can cover all the things I found on my own, right?
And so we have brought in people who are now just as investors in the success of the founders as us, right? To say, Hey, I’m here if you need me. If you want to talk about how to, for example structure to minimize your tax liabilities. I’m here to talk. I’m a partner at a tax firm, for example, who’s an LP and Retirement fund or how to build on your free AWS credits so that you’re not stuck in two years when you want to move to IBM cloud. Things just as simple as that. And so I think that’s our number one value add. The second thing, as you know, is that our team, we spend a lot of time on the world cultivating relationships. Okay. both in corporate and in venture. These usually help our companies not to run out of money, Right?
Olu Oyinsan [01:06:22]:
Readily open up our network, both for distribution and being able to raise follow on funding both from people who are like our LPs or investors that just are in our network around the world to be able to add value to that and possible create possibly creates exit opportunities. Like an exit opportunity that we recently negotiated in our portfolio. I was the one who actually made the introduction. A much bigger company that we didn’t invest in, and that was much smaller company that we invested in. And we said, I think there’s synergy here. You guys should talk. They came out of that conversation with the term sheet to get acquired. And so those are the kind of value that you probably want to add as a VC, but eventually you have to realize you’re not the founder. So a lot of times you need to be available, but not in the founder’s face. If you wanted to build that company so bad, go become a founder, right? And so you have to stay out of their way to actually do their work, and, but you also have to support when they need it and be available, be eager so that they see you as a first option.
Amazing. I agree with your point about that investor is not a founder, so don’t try to be, get into the shoe of the founder because then, we see a lot of cases where it happened when investor tried to drive the company and everything collapsed. So, so having that clear line is always good. Thank you so much Olu and this is kind of for my last question and it’s basically, why do you think more venture funds should invest in the Africa region? And what is your future vision?
You already mentioned about the, the return side, but I mean, not on the return side, but actually what is your future vision? How this tech ecosystem will help to grow Africa?
So from an investment standpoint, I think there are two reasons, right? There is the reason to hedge
Yeah.
Which is basically created by FOMO. And there’s also the reason for now, and I’ll start with the hedge. If a region of the world is going to house about 20% of the world population in our lifetimes.
Olu Oyinsan [01:08:56]:
As a global investor who is serious about forecasting and succession and the future of their firm, I think it’s a no brainer to create footprint. Where the future is going to be. And again, Africa has developed slowly behind a lot of the world, but the way there’s a globalization that is being caused by freedom of movement and tech, where if not for anything. Africa being a significant part of the world is going to experience that ripple effect. Let’s even say they get nothing. They’re going to enjoy the ripple effect of being in the world. And you want to miss him from that. So to have a good hedging strategy, you need to be in Africa. And as you know, it’s getting more and more expensive.
Oh, yeah.
The second thing is there is a great opportunity for now, and it’s growing. Mobile, smartphone and mobile performed penetration is growing. The demographic are people who are going to be working for the next 30 to 40 to 50 years. Extremely young group of people population growth. And access to the internet and cost of data is variable. Access to the internet, growing cost of data is dropped in. It’s just makes a lot of sense why we are seeing successful tech companies in Africa more often than we saw them 15 years ago.
Yeah.
And so when you see those kind of things for an investor who has a global perspective and a global mandate, it just makes sense. The opportunities here, and it’s now and clearly global investors have heard that. And that’s why you see the total investments in tech and technical businesses in Africa. When I moved back home in 2017, it was like $400 million. No, it was $151 million.
$151 million, Okay.
It’s going to be about $5 billion this year minimum. So clearly people are taking note and also what we’ve seen is even the African investors are beginning to, they’ve joined the party, and this really helps in our fund today, I think about 40% of the commented capital is homegrown.
Ah, interesting. Yeah.
And so this is where you need to start building wealth. And who knows soon you’ll see more funds like NASCARs who are investing in Africa funds and investing globally too, because there’s wealth being created everywhere in the world. It’s just that the rest of the world takes some of the world created in Africa because they invest in Africa. Africa isn’t investing outside and so they don’t partake in the growth that comes from outside. And that’s why I said about being a global player. And so I think Africa has come of age, which is it’s split to see, it’s clear. About 50% of all the top tier funds in the world and now investing in Africa have, at least in Africa, it was not the same thing 10 years ago.
Oh yeah. I would say even five years ago and five-year things have changed dramatically.
Yeah. So I think it’s, it’s clear to see what direction we’re moving in. And as I said again, how this is going to continue depends on us
To get the return
Correct.
To get financial return. And, I think what you said that’s very important for an ecosystem, and that’s what I saw in India too. When you have successful founder, they become investor, and then it’s become like a virtual cycle, Sorry. So it’s become like a virtual cycle because you have more money, you invest, and then more founder emerge and they, they make more investment. And that’s what happened to build a local ecosystem.
Now thanks for sharing that and sharing for your insight and knowledge and all. Generally, we end our podcast with a small rapid fire round. And idea for that rapid fire is to know a little bit more about you as a person and what you think on a personal side. I mean, you already answered a couple of them, but I would still love to ask and, and modify a little bit for you. so whenever you’re ready, I’ll start with my rapid fire question.
Absolutely. Go for it.
Okay. So you mentioned that you don’t want to be in a banking and VC space. You want to be a, become a footballer. But let’s say if you, if you were not in Banking, VC or professional footballer, what other profession you would’ve selected?
I’ll probably, so background is I feel like I’m both right and left brained. My mother is totally artistic. My dad is Surgeon. And so I think I could have become a lawyer or a musician. I played two instruments myself.
Ah,
So yeah, very different things. And I feel venture actually was the only career I could probably be doing. I think it brought me peace. Everything else I did, I felt like I was leaving a big, huge part of myself out. Venture actually brings me peace. It brings me home allows me to express a lot of the things that are in there. And but if I was an inventor, I’d probably be a musician, more
A lawyer musician. Would love to see that side of you as well. I think it’s late, but you never know. It’s never late in the party. You never know once you are successful and then you say, Okay, now enough with venture, and I want to go into the music industry.
Well, who knows? But I’m enjoying venture a lot for now.
Now for now it’s good you’re helping the society, so I don’t want you to lead that. Continue. Now the second question is, what is the best advice you ever got? Any, any personal or professional advice you ever got in your career or in your life?
I feel like I’ve gotten a lot of I’ve gotten a lot of great advice. I’m not sure I can I’m not sure I can remember at this point what the best advice I’ve ever gotten is yeah. I’m not sure I can remember.
Oh, any advice you want to share with people?
I think for that, I probably learned a lot is that when you decide to do something that you think is possible for you, you have the ability approach it. Like you have no choice, right? Approach it like you have no choice, Like you have no plan B, if you fail at it, then you have a plan B. But not having a plan be really improves, increases your chances of success.
So basically walking on a road without a safety net, I mean, even if the safety net is there, do assume there is no safety nets.
Correct. It improves your chances of actually walking on road Survival
I love it. That’s a good advice. The plan B are good, but you should never have them still.
Yeah. It should be an afterthought. Afterthought of failure.
I agree with you. Now my next question is any favorite startup which you wanted to invest and you couldn’t invest?
None yet.
None yet. Like
I did have one. I can’t mention it clearly, but I did have one actually in the mobility space. But that was the one regret I thought I was going to have, but I feel like maybe eight months after we passed some government policy changed against, and so it, it never became one of my big regrets anymore
I feel like I’ve probably invested in the companies I had the opportunity to investing for example, or company like Flood Away. I would’ve loved to invest in that company, but I was at Silicon Valley Bank when they were raising. So I didn’t really miss an opportunity. I knew they were a great company, but I wasn’t in position to pass on them.
Yeah.
I think every that company that I would’ve really loved to invest in, I think I was able to and I guess the jury is, the jury is still out. Right. Maybe I’ll have a regret this time next year,
I wish like you get a, get a success, whichever company you want, invest, but you always have some company, you know, you always are missing out
So I don’t know the one I got away yet, maybe because they’re not as hugely successful as I bet against,
But probably in future.
Yeah. So we’ll see.
A lot of people missed out. I know guys who missed out opportunity invest in Uber in their seed round and out of 5, three Angel investor did not invest it. Only two invested.
And they like night Day
Actually, I do know an investment investor in our investor group who got his money wired back
Ah, from
Olu Oyinsan [01:19:15]:
Yes, man. And he realized when he realized that Travis wasn’t going to run the company, which was the initial plan, Right. He said he wasn’t going to be CEO, and the investor was like, I put this, I thought you were going to leave this company, so can you wire me my $50K back? And he got his wire back. So I guess that’s what regrets sounds
Now you are spending time between US and Africa, but I’m pretty sure you must be traveling different other countries as well. Which is your favorite city in the world?
Amsterdam.
Amsterdam
Yes.
Any particular reason for that
I just love the energy. It’s a very happy vibe. They have a mix of everything. And it’s, in European terms, it’s a melting pot. And yeah, I really like the city.
Yeah. I don’t know if you know that it’s also the cycling capital of the world, so there are more number of cycles than the people in that city.
I didn’t know that. Maybe it’s one of the reasons.
It’s a crazy city, you know, where people love their bicycle and they have two or three bicycles in the house, like on American, you know, who have two or three cars, so they have two or three bicycle in their house. Now this is my last question. If you can change one thing in life, what would it be?
That’s tough. Do you, do you mean the decision I made or Anything?
Anything you want to change in your life. Like if you get a chance and say, Olu, you can change one thing in life, what would you pick? Personal, professional, societal?
Yeah. I would probably have, I would probably have moved. I would’ve, I would probably have loved to go to an Ivy League college first degree and moved to the US much earlier. Just for the amount of exposure I could have gotten early in my career. But again there are people who had those opportunities and are not necessarily, it’s not a straight line. So I’m very grateful for how everything has turned out. Who knows? They say Good times create weak man, who knows If I had had a better time. But I think it’s one of those things, and that’s why I try to, you know, when analysts come through the fund, I try to push them to a highly graded college MBA program because I feel like those were some of the opportunities that my background didn’t afford me. but we move
Jaspal Singh [01:22:17]:
That’s a good point and sometime you feel it would have been better, but you never know. You probably, would be working as a banker rather than working as a VC. Now if you moved early, you got promotions and you are settled in live, and you say, Okay, I’m done. So I’m enjoying my life. But sometime it’s you know, like you, I like the two point you mentioned about the ripple effect. So it’s like you never know what is creating what kind of a ripple effect.
Thank you so much. I really enjoyed our conversation and man, you got so much of knowledge and experience and your answer and your open candid discussion. Never, never follow a particular pattern or, you know, making anybody happy, but coming to the point.
Providing, should I be worried
I shouldn’t. I mean I love that. And, that’s what the purpose is, to have this open conversation.
Don’t say to my LPs is this
No, we will not. We will just post it publicly. And but thank you so much. And to be honest, I wish you good luck in, in your journey. And I see your next one should be 10 x bigger, and we’ll have probably a follow up conversation about your experience with Fund-III.
Absolutely. yeah, I really did enjoy this conversation. Jaspal great work you’re doing. I wish you a lot of success too.
Guest:
Africa is the second most populous continent in the world with 1.4 billion population and will reach 1.6 billion inhabitants by 2030. It is more than 16% of the world’s population. The startup ecosystem is evolving in Africa and venture capital firms are investing in the region, but it is only 2% of the total VC investment globally. Technology will play an important role in shaping the African economy and reforming the financial, healthcare, mobility & logistics sectors. Thus, it is important to follow a human-centric investment approach for venture capital firms. Africa needs to build infrastructure from the scratch for transportation and logistics to grow the GDP.
Olu Oyinsan is the managing partner at Oui Capital recently transitioning from Vice President at Ingressive Capital, an early-stage African venture fund, where he led the investment function. Olu began his career in commercial banking with Guaranty Trust Bank in Nigeria, later working as a consultant at Forrester, advising some of the world’s leading technology companies on products and processes, and as a relationship manager at Silicon Valley Bank, where he supported technology startups across all verticals in accessing debt, equity and mezzanine products.
Important Notes:
If you have questions, comments, or would like to be a guest on Mobility Innovators Podcast, email us at info@mobility-innovators.com